Category Archives: Advertising

Life has changed a lot in the last 50 years. Technologically, we’ve gone from hard-wired telephones and physical communication modes to an unlimited universe of advanced electronic, mobile, and Internet devices. Despite all those technological changes in our lives, perhaps our societal attitudes have evolved even more.

Think of how dramatically our thoughts about gay rights, abortion, drinking and driving, privacy, climate change, public safety and other big ticket issues have been altered over that time.

If you’ve ever watched the television show Mad Men before, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Set in the early 1960s, almost every scene in the program involves someone either a) drinking alcohol b) cheating on their spouses or c) smoking in a venue where it would be prohibited today.

What brought the last point to mind this week was a photo I noticed of a diplomat sitting in the White House with then-President John F. Kennedy back in 1962. Tucked in the very corner of the photo, sitting inconspicuously on a coffee table, is a fancy glass case loaded with cigarettes.

To anyone born in the last 20-30 years, the thought of being able to smoke in the White House, let alone an airplane, movie theatre, doctors’ office, hospital or restaurant, is something totally foreign.

Today, it is not just illegal, it’s also socially unacceptable in many circles. Ostensibly, JFK was a cigar smoker in private and his wife Jackie was a heavy cigarette smoker but, even in 1962, this was not something generally acknowledged in public. However, that certainly didn’t stop the rest of North Americans puffing away wherever they pleased.

According to a 2013 University of Waterloo report on smoking, in 1965, over 62% of Canadian men were smokers and about 50% of all adults in this country smoked, the all-time peak in tobacco usage. Today, just 16% of Canadians are regular smokers and the number continues to fall every single year.

That’s a phenomenal change in less than half a century. Pressure by The Canadian Cancer Society, the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association and a variety of other public and private organizations has led to more and more restrictions on where people can smoke and what age you can buy cigarettes, along with packaging changes and warning notices, plus a whole bunch of other deterrents.

Health concerns have become better known. Workplaces have banned smoking. Governments have systematically bumped up “sin” taxes. The list of hindrances has grown to the point where smokers are not just a tiny minority, they’re ostracized for taking part in an activity that, in addition to being perfectly legal, continues to be a massive source of revenue for government, accounting for over $7 billion in tax revenue annually.

Most politicians wouldn’t be caught dead smoking a cigarette in public, partly because they know their political careers would likely be dead, too. In July 1984, I was working in the Press Gallery on Parliament Hill and found myself at a picnic one Sunday afternoon, chowing down next to Brian Mulroney, who would become Canada’s Prime Minister just two months later. Seeing the writing on the wall, he told me how he’d quit smoking a short time before that, as he realized how difficult being a smoker would be while holding the highest office in the country.

Barack Obama made a similar decision in February 2011 after 30 years of being addicted to the weed. And I’m sure thousands of other politicians made the same commitment, partly for their health, but mostly because it’s become a habit the majority of people not only don’t participate in, but actually frown upon, especially when it comes to the people they elect.

There’s an interesting article in the November 2014 issue of The Walrus by longtime magazine writer Lynn Cunningham about her lifelong attempt to quit smoking, part of which details her spending time in the Mayo Clinic’s Nicotine Dependence Centre.

After 50 years and numerous attempts to rid herself of the habit, nicotine had become a vice she knew she couldn’t overcome without serious help. Serious enough to travel to Rochester, Minnesota and pay $5,500 U.S. for the Mayo’s eight-day cessation program.

Cunningham talks about the lack of residential treatment options for those who simply cannot quit on their own – and the similar lack of public sympathy for cigarette addicts. Unlike other addictions for which there are numerous support groups available, she says reformed smokers rarely have such avenues.

She comments on the fact that many recovering addicts, especially alcoholics, are often chain smokers who don’t even consider smoking an addiction.

And she even talks about how many popular movies have been made about the struggles of quitting alcohol or drugs – when nobody would even think of making a blockbuster about someone who quit smoking.

“Popular culture basically doesn’t acknowledge smoking as a dangerous addiction, nor does it lend it the patina of romantic dissolution that might garner users more sympathy – or better treatment options,” writes Cunningham.

Last week, the Canadian Cancer Society said it is taking the “next logical step” by urging Health Canada to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, according to a Canadian Press article.

It’s already the law in Australia, where cigarettes have been packaged in plain olive brown wrapping since late December 2012 and cigarette use has fallen sharply since.

The CP story says similar plans are in the works in Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and France. “Plain packaging is an important and logical next step for Canada to curb tobacco marketing, reduce smoking and save lives,” says Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst at the Cancer Society.

As more and more pressure is inflicted on Canada’s remaining smokers to quit the killer weed, it’s amazing to look back at the changes that have taken place since the 1960s. When the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association (NSRA) was formed in 1974, its founders had very modest goals. They hoped to convince a few people that smoking was bad for their health and, in doing so, make them consider the idea of quitting.

As Canada gets closer and closer to being a non-smoking society, the NSRA must look back and marvel at how boldly life has changed in their 40 years of existence. It’s just one example of the ways our lives in this country have evolved, but it’s a profound one.

Are you excited about the kick-off of the new fall television season? Or could you care less? When I was a tiny TV watcher many, many years ago, I used to love this time of year. All the new shows starting and barely enough hours in the day to view them all.

Like many people, however, now the new season barely seems like a big deal at all. I emailed a few friends last month with some random magazine list about the Top 25 new network television programs this fall and they both told me they don’t even watch anything on regular television anymore, having switched their allegiances several years ago to specialty channels.

In the ever-evolving world of TV programming, it’s become a huge challenge for the formerly powerful American networks like ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX to bolster their sagging ratings against the formidable competition from outlets like HBO, AMC and Showtime.

Over the past several years, those latter stations have given viewers enticing choices they haven’t had in the past – commercial-free programming, full-length shows that fill most of an hour instead of being chopped up into little bits, and award-winning quality (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, etc.) without nearly as much censorship as conventional television.

Plus, with viewers’ ever-shrinking attention spans, most of these stations only produce 12-13 episodes per year and run them every week. Network television airs 22-23 episodes of prime time programs and they’re constantly pre-empted for “special events” or during holidays. They also go on hiatus for months at a time, annoying regular viewers and making it difficult to follow storylines.

It’s no wonder people like my friends have pretty much given up on the old-school television many of us grew up on – and switched to shows that are fresh, new and creative.

Now the television landscape is changing again. With the introduction of Netflix a few years ago, people have a whole new way of watching their favourite programs. If you’re unfamiliar with this service, think of it as a giant video store (remember those?) where you have instant access to thousands of movies and television series.

Rather than having to drag out a DVD or Blu-ray disc (remember those?), you flick on a box and pick out whatever the heck you want to watch. All without even having to move your lazy butt from your La-Z-Boy.

Theoretically, you could watch entire seasons of television programs all in one sitting. And that’s exactly what people are doing. Forget commercials. Forget taking a hiatus whenever the network feels like pulling your favourite show from the air. Forget even having to insert a disc in a machine and waiting for ten seconds while it loads.

Of course, not every program or movie is available on Netflix, so most viewers will continue to fill their plates with a combination of other programming from conventional networks, specialty stations, live sports and other options.

Still, there’s no doubt that Netflix has revolutionized many people’s television viewing habits – just as cable and satellite TV did decades ago, as VCRs (remember those?) did in the 1980s, and as the original specialty stations (including channels like Food Network and HGTV) have done over the last 20 years.

But Netflix hasn’t stopped there. No longer just a re-broadcaster of other networks’ movies and television shows, these feisty folks are now producing their own original programming, including the most recent season of Arrested Development, along with top-notch series like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

Not only are they creating some amazing, groundbreaking programs, they’re also doing something unprecedented in the history of television. They’re making entire seasons of new programs available instantly, releasing what used to take months to accumulate all in one moment.

That’s right. You can watch a whole season of these programs continuously. Depending on how much abuse your retinas or your bladders can take, you could be done with an entire season of your favourite new program in less than half-a-day. They call it “binge watching” and it’s not hard to see why.

If you think traditional networks are freaking out about this, you’re right. And they’re not the only ones. The same specialty networks that seemed so hip a few years ago are now wondering how they’re ever going to top this. Why pay for a specialty station to watch a program over several months when Netflix can deliver great shows you can be finished with in just a few hours?

It’s the perfect fit for a society where we don’t like waiting for anything and impatience rules.

Life moves pretty fast. And it won’t be slowing down anytime soon. There’s not much call anymore for waiting or anticipating or dreaming about what’s around the next corner. That next corner is already in the rear-view mirror. Sorry you missed it.

Is that a good thing – or a bad one? Heck if I know. When it comes to television, I’m a graduate from the Luddite School of Idiot Box Viewing. For several years, I lived in a northern town with one measly television station, so my viewing choices were limited to “On” and “Off.” At the time, no one could have even dreamed what the future might hold. Or probably would have cared. But, like everything else in life, things evolve and we adapt. Or we don’t.

In one of my life’s previous incarnations, I worked for many long years in the field of advertising or, as news people like to refer to it, “the dark side.”

Unlike news, which is supposed to be factual, balanced and neutral, advertising is often pretty much the exact opposite. In general, marketing is frequently built on a foundation of hyperbole, half-truths, exaggeration, dubious claims and a host of other not particularly savoury building blocks.

Need proof? Do what I do every month and check out the ‘Selling It’ section of Consumer Reports. You’ll find a showcase of the most devious and deceptive advertisements submitted by readers. Nothing brings a smile to my face like the blatantly absurd marketing methods used by some businesses.

Of course, the smile fades when you realize those same ads are also directed at you, me and hundreds of millions of other North American consumers and that, no doubt, some of us have already been wooed by their outrageous ploys.

After originally being trained as a journalist, I crossed over to the dark side almost three decades ago and discovered, instantly, the fine line that exists being truth and whatever the heck you call some forms of advertising.

Early in my career, I remember talking to a client who sold major appliances. He showed me two refrigerators, a bland white one and another one that was some kind of off-white colour. The price tags on both were the same, but the off-white model had a large sign indicating it was $100 off. Wow!

The retailer asked me which one I’d buy and, being the rookie advertising clown that I was, I pointed to the model that was “on sale.” He laughed at my ignorance, saying they were the same model, but that no one would buy the off-white version, so he had slapped the $100 enticement on it and, voila, naïve consumers were jumping at the chance to pick up the “sale” model. Ka-ching.

Oh, the lessons I learned over the next several decades. Although the idea of “bait and switch” was outlawed years ago in Canada, it still exists to this day. The idea is to advertise a low-priced model of – let’s say – electric cat polishers. Kitty lovers will swamp your store looking for the bargain polisher, only to be told that the retailer is sold out, but that he’ll give you a sweet deal on the “super deluxe” cat polisher. You know, the one that has the bonus bottle of fur enhancer or three extra speeds (fluffy, super fluffy and ultra meow). Ka-ching.

When the government tried to clamp down on the practice by saying you had to have at least one working model of something in stock in order to advertise it, one of my clients actually put locks and chains on their “working models” and, when customers asked for one, they’d claim it would take them at least an hour to find the key to unlock it.

In the meantime, Sammy Sleazeball, their top salesman, would spend the intervening time trying to upsell the customer on the features of the top-of-the-line – let’s say – cordless sandwich assembler. Ka-ching.

And it’s not just local retailers who try pulling the industrial-sized ball of wool over your eyes. It’s the national manufacturers, as well. Recently, I was in a grocery store looking at the tempting selection of bacon (mmmmmm, bacon).

At the same time, another intrepid shopper was loading his cart with $4.00 packages of smoked pork fat (aka bacon), which were “on sale.” Awesome. And not a bad price, right?

So wrong. In case you haven’t noticed, two of the major manufacturers of sizzling breakfast meat (aka bacon) have recently reduced the size of their products from 500 grams to a mere 375, roughly one third less than the original portion. I believe it’s called the ‘new convenient size’ or some such bogusness. I guess it’s convenient because everyone likes to go to the store more often to stock up on stuff, right?

Anyway, do the math. A $4.00 price on the smaller size was exactly the same as the $6.00 price on the standard size sitting next to it in the cooler. So, my bargain-hunting fellow shopper saved himself exactly – let me figure this out – nothing (didn’t even need a calculator to do the math). Ka-ching.

On the bright side, he now has a freezer full of very convenient sized packages of strips-o-piggy (aka bacon), so there’s that.

I could go on all day with dozens and dozens of similar examples. Marketing experts have a million ways to extract hard-earned dollars from your wallet and, at the same time, make you think you just acquired the bargain of the century.

Back in 1958, a fellow by the name of Sy Syms (born Seymour Merinsky) started a discount clothing chain called SYMS Corp in the United States and coined the brilliant phrase, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” Although Syms passed away in 2009, that time-tested piece of advice lives on today.

Along with the phrase, “If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is,” it shows that you really need to work hard, be skeptical, educate yourself, comparison shop and don’t believe everything you hear before you blindly purchase your next – let’s say – automatic lint baller.